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while."Brian
KurtzTaylor,
MI"Fantastic! This is a vast improvement over the original
version." Brenda
HarnessUS"Blown away by the incredible features." Woody
LongacreTempe AZ,
USA"Amazing! I LOVE it!"

Colin GreenSydney, Australia"Great improvement of a superb product" Ed
JacksonWoking,
UK"Very impressive! I have been using the SBI site builder, which in itself is
an impressive tool. After seeing the new version of XsitePro though, I can honestly say that it is
second to none, in terms of functionality and features." Cesar
CamposSydney,
Australia"Absolutely amazing! I thought I'd seen the "BEST" website building software
in XSitePro v1 - version 2 just takes website building and developing to a whole new level. Sheer
brilliance!" Alan
HowellsStoke on Trent,
UK"EXCELLENT" DeannaWisconsin, USA"It looks awesome. The best just got better." SimonWiltshire, UK"WOW!!!" Judie
Brown
Washington, USA"I can hardly breathe! There is SO much stuff. I'm choking with
excitement!" Harold
Jaynes
Washington DC"WOW! FAR-OUT! GREAT! TREMENDOUS! This is coming from a web developer, not a
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features will save me so much time which will add revenue in my pockets...It's like going from the
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ParsonsVirginia,
USA"Fantastic!" Andrea
Wilson
Vancouver, Canada"Wow...so many new, exciting and upgraded features this is going to make
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MitchellUnited
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Texas, USA

Paul Smithson - 7th October 2008It may be
surprising to know that something as simple as the sales
button you use on your order page can be responsible for
massive changes in your conversions, but it’s true.
Just by changing the color of your order button, or
changing the text on the button, can have a major impact
on your sales.

The only way to really make sure you’ve
chosen the right button is to split test, but there are a few
things you can do to make sure that right from the start you
are using a sales button that is most likely to have a higher
than average conversion rate.

In general, the color red can really attract the eye to the
order button. A recent analysis of over one hundred of
the top e-commerce websites showed that 15% of them use the
color red for their sales buttons, so make sure that red is one
of the options you test.

Other colors that often work well are blue,
orange, and green so do run tests to see if any of these can
help lift your response.

It’s also worth testing rollovers for your
buttons.

A rollover is when an image changes when a
user hovers their mouse over it. Some studies have shown
that changing a button’s color from red to green upon rollover
can increase conversions. Again, this isn’t a hard and fast
rule so there are no guarantees, but it’s well worth testing to
see if this holds true for your site.

The text on the button is also
crucial. You can often see a major change in conversions
by simply changing a single word on your button. For
example, changing the text on the button from ‘Buy it now!’ to
‘Get it now!’ could make a big difference. Other wording you
could try include ‘Order Here’, ‘Click Here to Order’, or just
the single words ‘Buy’ or ‘Order’.

A word of caution though. Some marketers
believe that a percentage of people have an aversion to the
word ‘buy.’ Remember, testing is crucial, but you might
want to avoid words that are often associated with spending
money. Again, the golden rule is to keep
testing.

Something else worth bearing in mind is the
profile of your customers, or potential customers. For some
people, particularly those who are not particularly online
savvy, conversions can be increased by giving them clearer
instructions. Instead of having a button that just says ‘Order’
you might want to tell people that they have to click the
button to purchase the product. It may seem obvious to
you and me, but to someone with little experience buying things
online, it may not be so obvious. Putting the words
‘click here’ somewhere on your button has been known to
increase conversions for some sites.

Other things to test include the addition
of credit card icons to the button, animation to draw attention
to your button, adding images around the button, and adding
design elements such as arrows to draw the eyes toward the
button.

Remember, although your order button might
be the last thing people see before placing their order, it is
only a small part of the overall purchasing process. In
addition to running tests to see which order button works best
don’t forget to also test your headline, your call-to-action,
your price points, your body copy, and pretty much everything
else that makes up your web page or is part of the order
process.

About Paul Smithson -
Paul Smithson is the founder of Intellimon and the driving
force behind the best-selling XSitePro web site development
tool. Since graduating in Business Strategy and Direct
Marketing from two of Europe’s leading business schools, Paul
has set up five multi-million dollar companies, one of which is
now owned by the BBC. His areas of expertise include business
strategy, e-commerce, on-line and off-line marketing, software
development, and maximizing the potential of on-line
businesses.

For more information about
this, and many other Internet Marketing-related
topics, visit Paul Smithson's site, www.xsitepro.com.